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Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. - wikipedia
Employers focus so much of their attention seeking people with qualifications, experience, competence, skills, humour, willingness to work overtime, willingness to work for less, but have forgotten the one fundamental value of being a good-human, which is integrity.
I have worked for 4 companies, in different cities and different environment, but the continuous existence of a lazy colleague who did everything they're not supposed to at work seems to be present regardless where I go. Fresh out of University at my first jobs, I just thought I worked so hard because I was enthusiastic, but 10 years later, I find myself working even harder than what I did back then. I started observing the behaviour of people around me who I considered successful or unsuccessful, and it became quite clear that ones willingness to work and uphold their principles has nothing to do with age, but is a trait that they either have or not.
You may wonder why is integrity so important in a work place, and how does it influence you? People with little integrity are difficult to manage, as they don't keep to the rules, and often have other people pick up their slack and exhaust company resources. They also have a tendency to be dishonest. People with integrity would know what they were doing is wrong, making it easy to trust them and their work ethics, where as people with little integrity tend to find a sense of entitlement therefore finding nothing wrong with their behaviour.
To maintain a successful work environment, it is essential to be able to trust your staff. So next time you find yourself in a position of hiring new staff, rather than asking if they're hard working, which everyone always says they are, ask them if they consider themselves as someone who has integrity. They will not expect the question, and if they aren't you will see it on their faces immediately, and if that were the case, truth is no amount of qualifications or experiences would make up for the integrity that they are lacking.
For anyone who wants to enter a professional working environment, you need to know the difference between a Resume and a CV (Curriculum Vitae). The biggest difference between the 2 is the length of the document. A resume is a 1 page summary of one's skills and experiences, whereas a CV is a lengthier and detailed document of one's education, achievements, accomplishment, etc. However, do not confuse a CV with biography, by over loading the document with useless life facts that are irrelevant to the position you are applying for.
Since hiring agents, or potential employers spend an estimate of 20 seconds scanning your resume, you really want the important information to stand out. Here are 5 things you should remove from you CV today, apart from it taking up space, they can sometimes work to your disadvantage.
1. Stop using bland fluff words.
If you think making use of big words makes you sound smarter, you are mistaken. On the contrary it does the opposite, bland fluff words are easily identified, so the impression you are giving is that there is no true substance to your CV, therefore you are making use of meaningless words to 'fluff' up the appearance.
E.g. dynamic visionary, developing organism, vernacular understanding.
Apart from fluff words, redundancy, slang, made up words are all a no-no's.
2. Eliminate your home number.
In this day and age, many of us don't have home numbers, and if you do, surely you're not sitting around at home the entire day waiting for it to ring. If possible, you want to provide only 1 contact number so that whomever may be looking for you can get hold of you successfully. Hiring agent or employers do not want struggle to reach you.
3. Remove irrelevant job references.
People who don't have much work experiences tend to write down unrelated job references, to fill their CV's. It really does nothing, since the employer at an auditing company has no interested in the gap year you took after high school working as a waiter in London.
This is also applicable for skills that are unrelated. It is no ones business that you can slam dunk, or eat 10 burgers.
4. Stating the obvious.
Since most companies require you to e-mail your CV, we have moved away from official cover letters, but rather a professional e-mail that accompanies the CV. Regardless which option you opt for, you should eliminate stating the obvious.
E.g. what not to be writing:
I am sending you an e-mail because I see your restaurant advertised for a new pastry chef, which is the position I would like to apply for.
But rather:
I would like to apply for the pastry chef position at your restaurant.
5. Inappropriate photo's.
It is not required for people to include photo's or any personal information (e.g. religion, ethnicity) in their CV's. Any information that can be used to discriminate against you can be left out, unless it was a requirement stipulated. Having said this, many people tend to include their photo's, wanting to allow the employer to 'put a face to the name'. If you find it essential for the employer to see what you look like, make sure you choose an appropriate photo. Any excessive pouting, plumber cleavage, dirty clothes or hair, prison death stare, does not work in a professional environment.
Always keep your CV focused on the job you're applying for. Keep it simple and to the point.
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| Madrid | Spain (Photo: W.Tsai) |
However, if you’re anything like me and enjoy planning your own vacation and deciding when and where to go in your own time, then this article is for you. Last spring I planned a 16 day trip around Spain from my laptop. All you really need is 3 Apps (Skyscanner, Booking.com & Dropbox), Google Map and a credit card.
Keep in mind, if you're not planning to visit abroad, all these Apps are still as useful for domestic getaways. Studies have shown that holidays and breaks are necessary for the well-being of the working class, and one should take these times off even if you don't believe you need it.
Keep in mind, if you're not planning to visit abroad, all these Apps are still as useful for domestic getaways. Studies have shown that holidays and breaks are necessary for the well-being of the working class, and one should take these times off even if you don't believe you need it.
STEP 1
Decide where in the world you would like to go. Open Google Map and view nearby places or use street views for specific area’s. Street view comes particularly handy when looking for accommodation, as you should have a look at your surrounds before committing to the reservation. You can also calculate distance with Google Maps, so you can see how far to travel between cities or even just from the Metro Stations to your apartment.
STEP 2
After you've decided on your destination, go to Skyscanner or download the App. Enter your destination and dates and Skyscanner would search all possible flights and arrange them by price. You can also filter by airline. If you don’t know where you’d like to go, you can also select ‘Everywhere’ as your destination and Skyscanner would search for the cheapest flights to various destination. There is also car rental and hotel options on the site.
STEP 3
Once you’ve decided on your dates, go to Booking.com or download the App. Enter your destination and dates and select the price range, accommodation type, etc. Booking.com would then search and feed you with a list of options. The more detailed you complete the filters, the smaller the list would become. It is advisable to read reviews from other guests so that you don’t get fooled by the marketing material the owners have loaded.
STEP 4
When you’ve made your decisions, reserve, reserve, reserve, this is where the credit card comes into play. Most online purchases or bookings require one to use a credit card, so if you don't have one, this might be a bit more challenging. Keep in mind, many banks offer free travel insurance with plane tickets purchased on your credit card, which is a score.
STEP 5
All your reservations, plane tickets, accommodation, etc. would send you a mail. Open a dropbox account and upload all your confirmations, and additional documents for safe keeping in case you loose your hard copy. I usually scan my passport and upload that as well, just in case I loose it. Most companies work on a digital system nowadays so it's not even necessary to print out your confirmations.
Make sure you have checked the visa requirements for your destination, and if all is in place then you are ready to go. Happy travelling!
In our previous article (I need R16 Million to survive retirement) we spoke about how you should go about doing the calculations to see how much you need to have saved to survive your retirement when the time comes. The result was grim for most of us, and since we don't want this blog to only be the bearer of bad news, we are going to tell you how saving R25 000.00 over 5 years (R5 000.00/year) will give you over R1 Million upon retirement.
The secret is a little thing called compound interest. Compound interest is interest that builds onto your initial deposit plus the previous interest earned. In short it is interest on interest. Compound interest will allow your savings to grow faster than that of simple interest.
For example, your interest rate is 1 bunny for 1 bunny. With compound interest on 1 bunny, you will get 1 bunny interest, and you add it to your current bunny making it 2 bunnies, and there after you will get interest on that. Where as with simple interest, you get interest on the amount of bunnies from your initial (principal) deposit. In this case, your interest would be 1 bunny every time.
Now moving away from bunnies and to money value. Below, I have illustrated that if you save R5 000.00 each year from age 24 to 28 (5 years), and thereafter nothing until 65 when you will retire. With a 10% annual compound, you will have R1 141 786.00 in your savings account. We have in the previous article clarified that, that would not be enough, however you can image what your savings could be if you were to continue saving at the same rate. Keeping in mind, the earlier you begin saving, the better.
If you are interested in knowing what you need to save and what you would like your outcome to be. Provide me with your age and monthly deposit amount, and we will assist you in doing the calculation. Mail us at: mailtheworking@gmail.com
A couple of years back, one of my colleagues had asked me if I had a retirement plan, and to her surprised I didn't and had actually never given it any thought until that point. I was in my 20’s and retirement felt like an eternity away. Finding me completely irresponsible, she then followed by asking me where I was planning to get money from once I stopped working, and I had no answer for her. I guess at that age, I was still naive enough to believe that ‘when I grow up’ I will earn enough money to save up for retirement. However, now that I am 30 and understand money better, I have realised that you are unlikely to be able to ‘save up’ for retirement based on an average salary.
My colleagues question
had bothered me, and I had begun asking everyone I knew if they had a
retirement plan of sort, and most people did.
South Africa, unlike many other countries don’t offer their pensioners much. Upon retirement, you’re pretty much on your
own. The monthly pension from the
government is a maximum of R1 500.00 (today’s money) for
qualifying pensioners, with no form of medical care. To see the criteria's to qualify for government pension, you can visit the South African Government website. It is quite evident that any working class person would need to be able to self-sustain upon retirement.
There are various
retirement plans, and the payout upon maturity is based on your monthly
contribution. One can pay as little as
R500.00 a month, however with that contribution your end payout would most
likely not be sufficient to last you the duration of your retirement, which is
what the brokers don’t tell you when marketing their products. This is why after 3 years of retirement, many pensioners go back into the work force.
Example:
Being one of the younger
working Gen-Y members, you start your retirement plan at the age for 25, you
would like to retire at 65 and expect to live till 80. You would thus be contributing to your
retirement for 40 years. Each month you
save R500.00, and with an 8% compound interest, your end savings is R1 745 504.00
(FNB future value calculator), which sounds like a lot of money. However if this is your mind set, you have
not done your calculations and had not taken inflation into account, and what I
am about to say will shock you.
Let’s say, based on your
current lifestyle your monthly expenses are R10 000.00, and you would like to
maintain the same lifestyle upon retirement.
Assuming again you are 25 and will retire at 65, living for 15 years
till 80. According to the retirement
savings calculator by Southern Charter, what you would need at age of
retirement to sustain you for 15 years is R16 296 607.00 (equivalent
to R1 584 392.00 in today’s Rand) which is an extremely far stretch
from R1 745 504.00. To achieve
this, you will need to increase your monthly contribution to R2 190.00 total. This is of course a basic calculation,
without taking any assets or liabilities into consideration.
There are various
retirement calculators on the internet, that calculate different scenarios, and
it is highly advisable to do this calculation in your 20's for better future planning.
I made use of Southern
Charter’s retirement savings calculator as it was easiest and most efficient for me, however below are a few other links
you can make use of:
Southern Charter
Old Mutual
Sanlam
Liberty
First National Bank - Future value calculator
Southern Charter
Old Mutual
Sanlam
Liberty
First National Bank - Future value calculator
At some point in our lives, we have all wondered how our salaries measured up to the people around us. You see your friends who you graduated with getting married, having kids, buying property and travelling the world, all at the same time, yet you are still struggling to pay back your student loan. Naturally you believe they are getting a larger salary than you, but it is impossible to actually know that unless they had told you. And since salaries are quite a private topic for South Africans, most of us don't feel comfortable discussing it over a Saturday braai, so the question lingers and you continue being left in the dark.
This needs to change! To be able to make better financial decisions, it is crucial to know how your salary compares to others in the same position as you. You should know what your worth is and if you are being payed accordingly. And if you are being under-payed, you should know what the going rate is for further negotiations either with your current or potential new employer.
In the last quarter of 2015, the estimate number of employed South Africans were 8 992 000 according to Trading Economics, making it the highest number of employment in a very long time. The retirement age for both men and women are still 60. The average low skilled wage is R3410.00/month, and the high skilled wage average is R19 900.00/month.
For an indication of what your specific profession is getting paid, you can visit Payscale, to see the anonymous salary logs for various professions. The site is quite resourceful, as one can see the logs per province, age group or years of experience, etc.
For an indication of what your specific profession is getting paid, you can visit Payscale, to see the anonymous salary logs for various professions. The site is quite resourceful, as one can see the logs per province, age group or years of experience, etc.
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 we spoke about how you should go about doing the calculation...){kind=link}
